1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,760 of you have already met us out at the table, but I have my wife stand up so that you can 2 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:09,800 see her and my wife Sherry. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary on Monday, and so we're 3 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:15,920 off to a good start. So the first 30 has been good. We're working on the second one now. 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:20,640 We have seven kids. There's three already out of the house, grown, one of whom is married, 5 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:25,000 two of whom are married, and then the other four are back in the various places where 6 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:30,840 they're supposed to be tonight we trust. So we know that you have some of our prayer cards 7 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:34,960 out on the hallway. We have a table out there in the front that has some as well. We also 8 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:40,160 have some things there. If they can be of help to you, we have some Russian tracks. And we 9 00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:45,000 also, in case you don't speak Russian yourself, we have the English translation of it so you 10 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:50,120 can see what it is. And before you hand it to somebody, we also have some little business 11 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:55,560 cards which are not ours, but it's a ministry that our church in Russia supports where they 12 00:00:55,560 --> 00:01:01,920 have an online radio station, Christian radio station 24-7 that broadcasts both in Russian 13 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:07,400 and in Chinese, in Japanese and in Korean, in German and in French and in Spanish. And 14 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:14,160 so if there are people that you think you have difficulty reaching because of a language 15 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:18,920 barrier, obviously we don't want that to be a barrier. And so that's one avenue that's 16 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:24,040 available. And certainly if you have people from other nationalities or language groups 17 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:29,280 that you have difficulty communicating with, we can always get a hold of tracks and things 18 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:35,160 like that. And you can give somebody the gospel if you really want to. So we want to encourage 19 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,840 people to do that. It's been really exciting to meet with the Jennings before the service 20 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:45,520 and hear about the way that the Lord is moving and multiplying in the church here. And that's 21 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:50,240 very exciting. We know that there are some folks that are here that were not here the 22 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:56,360 last time that we were here. And so our presentation, it kind of gives a whole overview of the time 23 00:01:56,360 --> 00:02:00,640 that we spent both in Russia and then now the ministry that the Lord has given to us 24 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:06,960 in New York City. And so we'll go ahead and begin that. That'll be a good way hopefully 25 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:12,320 to answer a lot of the questions that you may have and for you to see what's going on as 26 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:18,880 well as maybe it'll spark some questions. So if you have any questions for us, we don't 27 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:22,440 have any other plans tonight. So after the service lets out, we can meet you back to 28 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:26,600 the table and we'll be happy to answer your questions. And if we can provide you, like 29 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:30,880 I said, with any kind of other information that would be beneficial, some gospel materials 30 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:36,440 or something, then we'd be happy to do that. Okay. So what I've done to try to make sure 31 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:41,120 I don't ramble is I actually have kind of a written out script here that I'll more or 32 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:47,440 less stick with, but at the same time I may diverge from that every once in a while. So 33 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:56,040 I am the switch on the side. Okay. Now I'm armed and dangerous. No, I think I just switched 34 00:02:56,040 --> 00:03:05,360 it off. Okay. Okay. I recognize that. Okay. So we serve the Lord as you already know in 35 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:10,440 New York City, but we never expected to. I was born in Cincinnati, but my family is actually 36 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:14,520 from Kentucky. We moved there when I was six months old and that's where I grew up at, 37 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:19,080 a small town named Somerset. If you, if you boat at all, go down to Lake Cumberland, you've 38 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:23,200 probably probably been in Somerset. That's home for me. A little town of about 12,000 39 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:29,040 people and my wife is from Illinois, not from Chicago or a big metro area, but from farm 40 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:35,080 country. And so she was saved when she was nine. I was saved at the age of 12 in Bible 41 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:40,200 College where we met the Lord had burdened my heart for Uzbekistan, which at the time 42 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:44,960 was part of the Soviet Union. But when the door to that country did not open to us, our 43 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:51,680 mission board asked us to consider Siberia, Russia, 2,800 miles to the east. And so we 44 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:57,600 could at the time, we could see a path that led from Siberia through some friends of friends 45 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:04,760 back to Uzbekistan. So we thought, sure, that'd be great. So we went to the city of 46 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:10,480 Blagov Yashinsk, which actually means the city of good news, not because it's a gospel 47 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:13,720 saturated place, but that's what the Russians called it way back when when they took it 48 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:20,160 away from the Chinese. So the city of good news, that's where we were. It's in the Russian 49 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:25,920 Far East. There's a map here. If you can see that little red dot way off on the right side 50 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:31,120 of your screen, the best way to find it is if you find the Korean Peninsula on a map 51 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:36,560 and you go straight north through China, right to the Russian Chinese border, that's where 52 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:46,400 you find Blagov Yashinsk. So it's about 7,000 miles east of Moscow, only about 700 miles 53 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:52,640 off of the Pacific Ocean. So it's not anywhere close to the European part of the country. 54 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,760 It's right on the border with China, like I said, the Amur is what the Russians call 55 00:04:55,760 --> 00:05:02,640 it, the Black Dragon River is what it translates to in Chinese. Our first visa was a cultural 56 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:07,720 exchange visa, and so I taught English to elementary and high school students here at 57 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:12,520 school number five during our first year in Russia. We were in Blagov Yashinsk for about 58 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:18,600 a year and a half, and then we moved 25 miles outside of town to this village named Ivanovka. 59 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:23,840 And there we began, this is a postcard of our village. It says Ivanovka, Lubimelysilo, 60 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:30,360 our beloved village. So that's where we were at, and we began having services in our home 61 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:37,280 and outside of our home in an outbuilding on our property and outside underneath some 62 00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:44,320 canvas that we stretched up to give ourselves some cover from the sun. So we saw people 63 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:50,720 get saved, get baptized, but the government was being influenced by the Russian Orthodox 64 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:57,280 Church. This is the guy, Gabriel, who was the priest in our area, and so as a result, 65 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:03,760 through God's providence, we were forced to leave the country back in 2003. But during 66 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:08,680 our ministry in Russia, the Lord had been arranging for our next field of service, but 67 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:14,680 it wasn't in Uzbekistan. Instead, he connected us with Pastor Jim Bicklin, his wife, Nancy, 68 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:20,920 with whom we now serve in New York City. Why New York City? Well, I'm going to tell you, 69 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:25,320 and that is when we went to Russia even, the burden that the Lord put on our hearts was 70 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:30,880 not for the big metro areas like Moscow or St. Petersburg, but it was for smaller rural 71 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:36,720 areas. And so being from a small area myself, my wife as well, that's just how we were 72 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:43,280 wired. But so when we got back to the states after getting kicked out of Russia, we expected 73 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:47,680 the Lord to put us in another part of the former Soviet Union, but it didn't work out 74 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:53,360 that way. So why New York City? Well, you already know that a lot of people live there. There's 75 00:06:53,360 --> 00:07:00,360 about 9 million in the city and about 20 million in the metro area. And you also know that 76 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:05,920 they have come from all over the world. But what you might, okay, so in addition to that, 77 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:10,840 there's an extra 50 million people or so that come to visit the city every year, you know, 78 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:17,280 passing through their students, their tourists, their business people, their visiting relatives, 79 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:21,840 whatever the reason is, but there's just a lot of, there's a wave of humanity that 80 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:27,920 keeps washing in and washing out and it's always changing. So you know all that stuff. 81 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:34,480 What you might not know exactly is that New York City is home to the largest Russian speaking 82 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:41,800 community in the world outside of the former Soviet Union. Over 600,000 Russian speaking 83 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:48,880 people live in New York City. To put that in perspective, that's the same number of people 84 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:59,240 as live here in Findlay, and in Bowling Green, and all of Wood County, and in Toledo, and 85 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:07,120 all of Lucas County put together. That's 600,000 people. And that's the size of the Russian 86 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:13,880 speaking community in New York City. With a community that large, many people feel no 87 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:18,760 need to learn English because they can live quite comfortably just speaking their native 88 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:24,120 tongue. So although my wife does have an ESL group which meets on Sunday afternoons after 89 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:28,800 our service, we conduct all of our church services in the Russian language so that they 90 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:34,960 can all have access to the gospel. This is a hodgepodge. The various ethnic groups, and 91 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:41,120 there are over 150 separate ethnic groups that were part of the former Soviet Union. People 92 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:49,880 from every shade and every series of facial features, anybody really. If they couldn't 93 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:54,440 be Russian, Russian, but they could be part of the Soviet Union. So with a community, 94 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:59,200 okay anyway. So the various ethnic groups, and this is just a smattering of them, that 95 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:03,840 inhabit the Russian Federation and its former satellite republics, they embrace various 96 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:09,440 religions and various beliefs. There are the atheists represented by their number one flag 97 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:16,640 bearer here, Vladimir Lenin. And you also have what perhaps you didn't realize, Russia 98 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:21,840 has the largest Muslim population in all of Europe. There's almost 2 million Muslims 99 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:27,640 that live just in Moscow. And that's not including, of course, the Central Asian countries like 100 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:33,400 Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and the others that used to be part of the Soviet Union. But the 101 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:39,120 predominant religion in the Russian Federation is still the Russian Orthodox Church. And 102 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:44,680 Poles show that between 60 and 70% of the population consider themselves Russian Orthodox. 103 00:09:44,680 --> 00:09:50,200 Russian Orthodox is a lot like Roman Catholicism. It's very ritualistic. It's very elaborate 104 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:55,600 in their services. And of course, a lot of these folks, like in any religion anywhere, 105 00:09:55,600 --> 00:10:00,560 a lot of the folks who would identify as Russian Orthodox, they're not really religious at 106 00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:06,000 all. They just figured, hey, I'm born in Russia, that means I'm Russian Orthodox, right? And 107 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:11,200 so for a lot of them, it's cultural, you know? They don't really go to church. They don't 108 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:18,280 really do anything religious at all. They just claim, well, I'm not an atheist, so what 109 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:26,120 am I? Oh, I'm Russian Orthodox. Okay. So a lot of it is that way. And so the dominant 110 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:32,000 in the Russian Federation is Russian Orthodoxy. But while all of these different groups are 111 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:38,400 of course present in our community, the majority of Russian speaking people in New York are 112 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:45,200 Jewish. Most of them are not ultra Orthodox like these guys. Many of them are not very 113 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:50,080 observant at all. Maybe Hanukkah, maybe Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement, you know, the 114 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:56,360 two high holy days. But they have been taught that Jesus is not for them. And for some of 115 00:10:56,360 --> 00:11:01,560 them, that's all they know. Oh, you're a Christian? I'm not. I'm Jewish, which is completely 116 00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:06,600 backwards of how it's supposed to be. But Jesus Christ, we know, is for the Jew and 117 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:12,200 for the Gentile. He's the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This fellow, 118 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:19,120 Ben Stein, he was our brother from Kiev, Ukraine. He came to him years ago, was born again. 119 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:24,040 He was a bold witness for Christ. And he was like my right hand for many years. But the 120 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:31,040 Lord took him home back in January. This is another shot. You've got Babur on your left. 121 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:40,080 Yeah, he's from Uzbekistan. He got saved after a Bible study in New York City and then in 122 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:45,000 the center of Barjah from Kazakhstan. He was saved after one of our Bible studies in another 123 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:50,880 part of the city. And the list goes on. Folks who have come to know the Lord or who serve 124 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:58,880 alongside him in our, serve alongside us in some capacity. This family, the guy, the dad, 125 00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:03,080 he's peace, he'll be, he'll be speaking tonight or tomorrow in my absence, our midweeks on 126 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:07,840 Thursday. In the center, his son runs our website. His other son, the tall fellow, he 127 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:13,800 runs our live stream. His daughter-in-law, who's there next to him, Katya, she does some 128 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:17,920 translated from time to time. His wife does decorating and visiting. And they're just 129 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:25,320 super folks. So you have people who are like any church. They're preaching. They're teaching. 130 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:30,160 They're doing our electrical stuff. They're translating. They're doing music, maintenance, 131 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:36,080 and cooking and decorating and evangelizing and counseling. And then this is a family, 132 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:40,640 a young family. He actually runs our live stream on Sunday mornings. He and his wife, 133 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:44,680 they have a Bible study in their home every two weeks. And so that's been going on for 134 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:49,400 about four months. And so we're really excited to see what the Lord's doing with them. So 135 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:54,200 if Ben was my right hand, this lady, Olia, she was my wife's right hand. She went back 136 00:12:54,200 --> 00:13:00,800 to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan last fall. Many of our folks are very mobile. They've 137 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:06,440 already come across an ocean to get here. And so they have no problem moving someplace else 138 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:09,800 in the country if they think they're going to get a job or if they think there's going 139 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:15,680 to be some kind of better opportunity for them. I mean, I can name, like, this is a 140 00:13:15,680 --> 00:13:19,520 family from Ukraine. They're in Cleveland now. But I can name nine different states 141 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:24,840 in five different countries where people from our church now can be found. And so it's 142 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:27,640 kind of like, in a way, it's kind of like a military church in the sense that people 143 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:32,640 come in, some of them stick and some of them, it's just a way station and they're off to 144 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:38,720 wherever the next place is. So now we have this other Olia. She's from Belarus and her 145 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:44,600 very active boys that kind of try to fill up the space that our previous Olia left. 146 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:50,120 And this introduces to us as well the things that our family does. So our kids are all 147 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:55,880 involved, both working in Sunday school or other times. Our daughter Shostya, she's our 148 00:13:55,880 --> 00:14:02,160 church pianist and she also does some other things from time to time. We also have, all 149 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:08,480 of our kids are active, passing out tracks, both in a public way and also privately. 150 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:13,080 Our son Gabriel, he was trying to get the gospel, all of his little league teammates, 151 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:18,520 our girls also are really interested in preparing baked goods to feed the body and the soul of 152 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:24,240 our local police precinct. And so we visit them pretty frequently. And so this is where 153 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:28,000 we're at. If you come to Brooklyn, Southern Brooklyn where the church is, this is where 154 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,960 you'll find us. We've got four storefronts. The building itself has five storefronts on 155 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:37,080 the bottom and some apartments on top which we're not connected with. So we've got two 156 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:41,760 storefronts, a Chinese restaurant and then two storefronts. And so that's the facility 157 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:47,000 that we rent. What you have is you have on the right side of the building, these two 158 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:51,800 storefronts, you can see the pillar in the middle has been opened up to form the auditorium 159 00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:55,560 that the English church that we work with, Pastor Bickles church, where they normally 160 00:14:55,560 --> 00:15:00,000 meet. We meet there on Thursdays. This is actually a Thanksgiving service that we had 161 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:04,600 because our midweek is Thursday. That's when we can use the building. And so that's that's 162 00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:08,880 that side of the building. And then the other side of the building, we have our Russian 163 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:14,080 auditorium. And then the fourth storefront is three classrooms and a nursery. And so 164 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:19,920 this is this is our congregation different different times. Half a block away from us 165 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:26,480 is this building. It's an old. It's an unfinished, Episcopal owned building. You can see it's 166 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:30,960 three stories. It's got a basement. It's got land, which we you know, we don't have any 167 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:34,480 parking. You saw there's no parking in front of our building. So you just have to scatter 168 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:38,720 in the neighborhood and find what you can find. So we've been trying to talk we have 169 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:44,800 been talking to the to the diocese for three and a half years, trying to gain access to 170 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:50,160 the building to help them to finish it to share the space to buy it outright to have 171 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:55,440 God give it to us, whatever, whatever any or all of those things that we can do so that 172 00:15:55,440 --> 00:16:00,680 we can have more space so that we can do more things. So we ask you to pray for us about 173 00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:07,040 that that the Lord would open up a place that would that would allow us to expand in in 174 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:13,640 different ways. So here's a map of Long Island. You also have the New York City is on there 175 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:18,520 the different different colored stuff. Our church in Brooklyn is located at the red dot 176 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:24,440 in the orange blob. The orange blob is Brooklyn. So the red dot if you can see it is way at 177 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:31,760 the south. We also have a Bible study to your right in that lime green area. That's Queens, 178 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:35,840 you know, New York has five boroughs Queens in Brooklyn, the Bronx, that Nile and then 179 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:41,040 of course Manhattan. So our church is in Brooklyn. We have a weekly Bible study in Queens. What 180 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:47,360 you can't see by looking at this map is that it takes our folks if they wanted to it would 181 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:53,040 take them two and a half hours on the train to get from that dot in Queens to that dot 182 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:58,360 in Brooklyn. And so that's why we have a Bible study in Queens. And that's why we'd like to 183 00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:04,720 open up another one somewhere else two and a half hours. What does that mean? That means 184 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:10,400 you get in your car here at Trinity and you can be in Flint, Michigan sooner than some 185 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:16,840 of our folks can get from one of our locations to the other one. Two and a half hours. And 186 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:20,400 that's just in New York. And that's not even as far as one part of New York is from the 187 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:25,600 other part of New York. Right? That's just it's Sunday. Trains don't run as frequently. 188 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:30,600 There's wider gaps in between. There's no direct route. You have to go up here and then 189 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:35,800 you have to go down here. That's how it is. So that's something else we ask you to pray 190 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:41,360 for that the Lord would give us more locations that we could use so that we could expand. 191 00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:48,400 We're actually trying right now to we're looking for a spot in Long Island. We've out of the 192 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:53,880 five boroughs even. We found three spots on Long Island that have both a Russian Orthodox 193 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:58,440 church and a Ukrainian Catholic church. And so we know there are people there and we know 194 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:03,080 that they're going to church of some kind there. And so we're trying to break into one 195 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:08,880 of those areas as well. So this is our Bible study in Queens on Monday nights. That's a 196 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:13,760 weekly thing. And so what we have finally, well, we've talked about the people in the 197 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:17,760 church. We've talked about our own family, my own family of the various members that 198 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:22,360 do different things. The third part of the triangle are churches like this. You guys 199 00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:26,280 have been supporting us for a long time. We have different groups that come from time 200 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:31,480 to time to work with us, senior class trips, youth groups, senior citizens. We've had senior 201 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:39,520 citizen groups before. And so we can we can tailor any kind of group, any kind of size 202 00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:44,680 for the most part. We have anyway, we had one group from Michigan, for example, that 203 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:49,520 spent about a week with us and they wanted to spend one day in a Chinese area, one day 204 00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:55,720 in a Russian area, one day in an African area. We can do that in New York. You know, there's 205 00:18:55,720 --> 00:19:02,360 everybody from everywhere, maybe not in the in the quantity that, for example, the Italians 206 00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:08,920 or the Chinese or the Russians possess. But you can find neighborhoods of just about anybody 207 00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:13,080 that you're looking for. So it's a great way to go to the mission field without needing 208 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:19,160 a passport, without needing an airplane ticket to visit another part of the world. Okay, 209 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:24,640 so that being said, there is a world of opportunity. And there's a limited time that God has given 210 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:29,800 to us to use. And so our goal was to plant churches and nurture them until the Lord provides 211 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:34,280 a national pastor to take them over and then move on to wherever the next place is that 212 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:38,200 the Lord would have us to go. So we do ask you to pray for us. This is our prayer card. 213 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:42,400 You can, like I said, find them on the table or in the hallway. Ask that the Lord be glorified 214 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:47,400 through us amongst the Russian speaking peoples of New York City. And that's our presentation. 215 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:54,400 Can I ask you to answer a question or two? Sure. 216 00:19:54,400 --> 00:20:03,400 Sure. You talked about how that you thought you were going to be in Russia, basically 217 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:19,400 for the rest of your ministry, and somehow you got to New York City. Can you give them 218 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:24,400 a little of the story that you gave us? We are not. We're not on live streams. So this 219 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:31,900 is very private. Okay. So tell them about that. Okay. So we were in our village and thing, 220 00:20:31,900 --> 00:20:38,600 you saw just a few pictures there of that because that was 20 years ago, almost. But 221 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:45,440 we had kids that were coming just out of the woodwork. It was great. And as a result, the 222 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:51,480 Orthodox Church was involved because they were losing people and influence, et cetera. 223 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:58,800 So they engineered for us to be removed from the country. So we had been working with another 224 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:05,120 missionary family and a single missionary lady there in Siberia. The lady had come back 225 00:21:05,120 --> 00:21:10,320 here and she was actually supported by the church in New York that we now partner with. 226 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:15,520 And so we had been sending updates back to our supporting churches as different events 227 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:20,640 unfolded. And then she was also mirroring those and sending information to her supporting 228 00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:25,440 churches because our ministries were very much connected. And so she contacted us and 229 00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:30,960 she said, if you get kicked out of the country, then call me when you get back to the states 230 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:36,400 because there's something that I think the Lord would want me to tell you in that case. 231 00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:40,680 And so we did. We got kicked out of the country, came back here to the states, called our friend 232 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:47,180 Margaret and Margaret told us about the Russian population, the fact that she had a supporting 233 00:21:47,180 --> 00:21:52,640 church that was in Brooklyn who had been and the pastor had been wanting to establish a 234 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:57,720 Russian speaking church, which is what we have. He tried to bring in a couple of other 235 00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:02,520 Russian speaking or Ukrainian speaking pastors from abroad that hadn't worked out because 236 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:08,240 of visa issues or whatever. And so they wanted to do more than just pass out tracks or have 237 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:16,560 that kind of ministry to the population. So right away, my wife and I, much to our surprise, 238 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:20,600 we both thought this is okay, this is what God wants us to do, which was a total shocker. 239 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,720 We're thinking we're headed back to Siberia and instead we're going to New Yorkistan or 240 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:29,920 New Yorker grad or something like that. So we made arrangements to come visit the church. 241 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,400 We were going to visit them in September or so. This was April. We got kicked out right 242 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:39,080 before Easter in 03. And so we were going to visit them when we were on our way up to 243 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:42,600 visit some of our other supporting churches in New England. But I didn't want to wait 244 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:46,760 that long. And so I called them up and asked if we could come early, like in July. And so 245 00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:51,120 we did. Went to July. He already had a few Russian speaking people in his church. And 246 00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:57,680 so we met with them, visited some others in the neighborhood, saw what there was to see, 247 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:04,160 at least a little sliver of it anyway. And we were convinced that the Lord wanted us there. 248 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:08,600 So we were actually with them on a Wednesday night with the pastor and his wife. And we 249 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:12,600 were driving around and they pulled off to the side of the road. And he turned around 250 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:18,280 and said, okay, well, what do you think? And so I told them that if they would have us, 251 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:23,640 then we would come work with them. And so they felt the same way. We, I thought, even 252 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:28,920 if our connection with Bethel, the church there wouldn't work out, okay, God still wanted 253 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:33,160 us in New York City to do what we're doing now. And so that's kind of the short version 254 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:43,160 of how that came about. 255 00:23:43,160 --> 00:24:10,160 I don't know if you've ever been there. I don't know if you've ever been there. I don't know 256 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:20,160 if you've ever been there. 257 00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:26,600 Sure. What I told pastor and his wife is that we found that ministry or that life in Russia 258 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:33,000 was hard because when we were in the village, we had sporadic electricity, no running water, 259 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:40,400 etc. So it takes a while to live, to clean, to cook, to all that kind of stuff. But we 260 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,480 told them life was hard, but ministry was easy because the people would come and they 261 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:50,680 would sit and we would talk and it was just different. You come to New York and you have 262 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:56,680 a different breed of Russians. Not everybody who wants to come comes. Not everybody who 263 00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:01,000 wants to come is able to come. God allows some to come and doesn't allow others to come 264 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,440 and others don't want to come. And in New York, obviously it's not the cheapest place 265 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:11,040 in the world to live. And so you have these folks who are coming to this new country, maybe 266 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:15,520 where they were, they were doctors, they were bankers, they were professionals, they come 267 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:21,160 here and now they're Uber drivers or now they're construction workers. Most of our ladies, they 268 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:26,600 work as home health aides either for watching young children or else watching the elderly. 269 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:35,200 And so it's definitely a transition. So they have not only their own living expenses and 270 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:40,440 their own immigration court expenses, which immigrates to America if you do it the right 271 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:48,840 way, it can be sometimes a 10-year long process. It can take a long time and there are lawyers 272 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:55,320 every step of the way. So they are working and they are immigrating and oftentimes they're 273 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:59,960 trying to learn English as well. And then they still have whatever family back in the old 274 00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:05,400 country, oftentimes they're the primary breadwinner. Sometimes the only breadwinner. They're not 275 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:10,800 making anything back there. And so they're being split in lots of different directions. 276 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:15,440 And so the folks that we do have, although we have, we have two services a week in Brooklyn. 277 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:20,640 I used to have three. And then the Bible study in Queens. Typically we only see our folks 278 00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:26,760 once a week because schedule-wise they just, they can't come. They won't come. They're 279 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,680 working six days a week. Sometimes they're working eight days a week, it seems like. 280 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:36,680 You know, multiple jobs and the jobs they get are not the best jobs. And so, so yeah, 281 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:42,280 in New York, of course, life is pretty easy, but the ministry is much different because 282 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:45,920 of all the pressures and the hustle and the bustle that they're being pulled in. 283 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:52,040 You're at New York, there's 600,000, I said, in New York total, there's 600,000 Russian 284 00:26:52,040 --> 00:27:06,040 people, Russian-speaking people. How many? I'm not even asking Baptist churches. I'm 285 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:14,360 just going to broaden a little bit and say Bible preaching. Gospel preaching as from 286 00:27:14,360 --> 00:27:17,360 And the largest church? 287 00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:20,360 A hundred people, maybe? 288 00:27:20,360 --> 00:27:21,360 A hundred? 289 00:27:21,360 --> 00:27:30,360 So, all the same size, that's 500 people, 500 people total with 600,000 people. 290 00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:32,360 Do we need more churches there? 291 00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:33,360 We do. 292 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:35,360 We need more Russians being churches there. 293 00:27:35,360 --> 00:27:36,360 We do. 294 00:27:36,360 --> 00:27:41,360 And our church, I'll say this, we have a sign in our church, obviously there's a war going on, right? 295 00:27:41,360 --> 00:27:46,360 And our church is not a Russian church, it's not a Ukrainian church, it's not even a Slavic church, 296 00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:51,360 because we want anyone who can speak Russian, especially from Central Asia, 297 00:27:51,360 --> 00:27:57,360 since that was the original burden that the Lord put on our heart and continues, actually to have on our heart. 298 00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:05,360 And so, we emphasize that, that there's one God, there's one faith, there's one brotherhood is what we have on our sign. 299 00:28:05,360 --> 00:28:08,360 And we've lost people over the war. 300 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:13,360 We know, you know, family where the husband is Russian, the wife is Ukrainian, 301 00:28:13,360 --> 00:28:19,360 but the husband supports the Ukrainians and the wife supports Vladimir Putin and the Russians. 302 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:22,360 And it is every kind of mixed up. 303 00:28:22,360 --> 00:28:27,360 It is really very close to a civil war, and in some families it actually is that. 304 00:28:27,360 --> 00:28:29,360 They've got people on both sides of the front. 305 00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:37,360 So, yeah, we have, and we emphasize this, we have a Russian speaking church. 306 00:28:37,360 --> 00:28:40,360 We're going to pray. 307 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:48,360 I would like to give you guys a comment to pray at least for the next couple of weeks for two things you guys for prayer. 308 00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:52,360 Can anybody talk a little bit about the two things you guys for prayer for in their ministry? 309 00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:53,360 Anybody? 310 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:54,360 Miss Karen? 311 00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,360 More locations. 312 00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:58,360 Did you guys catch that? 313 00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:00,360 To pray that they would have more locations. 314 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:06,360 I'm so glad for fending traffic, where you can get just about anywhere in 15 minutes in town. 315 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:08,360 From the furthest side. 316 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:11,360 So to go two and a half hours, they need more locations. 317 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,360 We need more churches there, so let's pray for that. 318 00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:16,360 Number one, what was the second thing? 319 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:19,360 Anybody remember? 320 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:26,360 That Episcopal church that isn't doing anything in that location, we need to pray that you guys make that location, 321 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,360 that it doesn't cost you too much. 322 00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:30,360 Amen? 323 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,360 I know somebody who has a lot of money. 324 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:35,360 Amen. 325 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:37,360 Let's do this real quick. 326 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,360 You 327 00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,360 You 328 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:07,360 You 329 00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,360 You 330 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:09,360 For me, for my wife, yes sir? 331 00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:24,360 It's real. 332 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:27,360 It's kind of a new development. 333 00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:32,360 I mentioned to somebody, I think a lot of folks still have the idea of New York from the 70s, 334 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:36,360 where you see trash barrels burning and things like that, and it's not that way. 335 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:40,360 Mayor Giuliani cleaned that up before we ever got there, for the most part. 336 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:48,360 But there has been, in more recent days, a wave, a spate, of just random crimes on the subways, 337 00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:52,360 people shooting people, knife and people stealing things. 338 00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:59,360 Now I'll say this, nowadays, there's no part of New York City that I wouldn't feel comfortable and safe going in 339 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:03,360 the daytime hours, so it's not like a war zone or that kind of thing. 340 00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:07,360 And these things that happen, if you read about them on the news or hear about them, 341 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:14,360 typically 3 o'clock in the morning, in some deserted location, train station, whatever. 342 00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:20,360 So yeah, and people, for the most part, if you're not looking for trouble, you're not going to find it. 343 00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:26,360 Now sometimes it's just some, what people would call just random act that happens wherever in a tourist area or something. 344 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:32,360 But for the most part, no, we don't have any fear about being in or around New York City. 345 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,360 But the things that you're hearing about, they're real things. 346 00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:56,360 Q. In the time that we've been there, I've only known of two that have come to our church. One of them is there now. 347 00:33:56,360 --> 00:34:06,360 In his case, he was living in Russia, he was drafted to fight in the war, didn't want to fight in the war, and so he made his way to Mexico. 348 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:15,360 And from Mexico, he ends up in New York City. So he's in the immigration process now, for the most part, no, but there are some. 349 00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:20,360 And like I said, he's not the only guy. I knew of one other guy that confessed to me, that's what he did. 350 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:31,360 He came across in a truck and made his way to New York after that. So it does happen. Predominantly not, but it does happen. 351 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,360 Anything else? 352 00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:40,360 Q. Is there any other way we could pay for you? 353 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:51,360 Yeah, two of our adult kids aren't walking closely with the Lord, and so that would be a great thing if that happened. 354 00:34:51,360 --> 00:35:04,360 I want to say thank you to you guys for being here, and we're so excited that God's using me the way that he is, and we're excited to be a part of your ministry. 355 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:19,360 Would you guys please give him a hand?